SIdeaches/Stitches

In article <yCRZc.92224$9d6.20709@attbi_s54>,

Brad Goodfellow said:

Everytime I run a race I get stitches or a sideache.
Can anyone tell me how to prevent getting sideaches during a race.

I believe what's happening is that you're getting a cramp in the
diaphram muscle that separates the heart and lungs from the stomach and
intestines about mid-way between the shoulders and the hips.

What works for me is to slow the pace a little, to breathe deeply "into"
the stitch and then hold the breath a second or so. I repeat this a half
dozen or more times and the stitch has usually left by then.

Quoted message said:

Everytime I run a race I get stitches or a sideache.
Can anyone tell me how to prevent getting sideaches during a race.

Drink less water.

"Brad Goodfellow" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<yCRZc.92224$9d6.20709@attbi_s54>...

Quoted message said:

Everytime I run a race I get stitches or a sideache.
Can anyone tell me how to prevent getting sideaches during a race.

Thanks

It's nearly always caused by your breathing being irregular. I
haven't had a stitch for years now, and I try to time my breathing to
my footstrike - two in/two out for slow paced running, up to one
in/one out for an all-out effort.

HTH

Edward
--
The reading group's reading group:
http://www.bookgroup.org.uk

Dadathome <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

In article <yCRZc.92224$9d6.20709@attbi_s54>,

Brad Goodfellow said:

Everytime I run a race I get stitches or a sideache.
Can anyone tell me how to prevent getting sideaches during a race.

I believe what's happening is that you're getting a cramp in the
diaphram muscle that separates the heart and lungs from the stomach and
intestines about mid-way between the shoulders and the hips.

What works for me is to slow the pace a little, to breathe deeply "into"
the stitch and then hold the breath a second or so. I repeat this a half
dozen or more times and the stitch has usually left by then.

possible causes and solutions are varied. If the problem is not due to
other factors like what you eat before the race, then changing pace
may help. Changing breathing pattern may help also.

There are some interesting past discussions about this. Search GOOGLE
for breathing pattern in rec.running and then sort by date. You'll
find the info.

Enjoy the run,
Ed

Quoted message said:

It's nearly always caused by your breathing being irregular.

This guys been smoking angel dust.

On 03 Sep 2004 17:18:22 GMT, [email hidden] (TheBillRodgerz)

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

It's nearly always caused by your breathing being irregular.

This guys been smoking angel dust.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

It's nearly always caused by your breathing being irregular.

This guys been smoking angel dust.

I think she loves me...

In article yCRZc.92224$9d6.20709@attbi_s54 said:

Everytime I run a race I get stitches or a sideache.
Can anyone tell me how to prevent getting sideaches during a race.

Thanks

From the archival wisdom of rec.running Jan. 8, 1997

From: Thom <[email hidden]>
Newsgroups: rec.running
Subject: Re: side stitches-unusual
Date: 8 Jan 1997 21:11:04 GMT
Organization: Pacific Gas & Electric Co.
Lines: 86
Message-ID: <[email hidden]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: tct3ws01.comp.pge.com

[email hidden] (Steven Barber) writes: > My girlfriend commonly gets side stitches while running. She runs

Quoted message said:

regularly (15 miles/week) and has for the past year. They occur while
running with me or alone. She is a nurse and generally good about
drinking water and remaining hydrated.
We have tried a variety of suggestions to prevent/avoid the stitches
including:
-drinking and/or not drinking just prior to heading out to run.
-various eating habits
-starting out SLOWLY to allow plenty of warmup time.
Once the stitches start we have tried a variety suggested techniques to
eliminate including:
-stop running long enough for the cramps to end; however, they return
when we begin again.
-abdominal breathing to relax the abdomen and relieve the cramp.
-exhaling as the left foot strikes the ground.
So far none of this has worked. She would like to train more; however, I
don't want her to get frustrated and quit.
Any suggestions will be tried and greatly appreciated.
Thanks all,
Steve

Stitches (from German "Runner+s World" June 95)
-------------------------------------------------
Typically, stitches are felt in the right upper abdomen, but may also occur on
the left hand side, or may irradiate to upper or lower regions of the body.
"Classic" stitches are more likely to occur to insufficiently trained people
than well prepared athletes. Approx. 20% of all runners suffer from stitches
at least once a year.

The reason for stitches is pretty simple. A full stomach during workouts is
not the primary cause. Bikers and nordic skiers never suffer from stitches,
although they have to eat and drink quite a lot during longer contests.
Absolutely certain is, however, that a full stomach, cold air or running
downhill is increasing the probability of stitches.The inner organs are
hanging from several ligaments, which, in turn, are fixed to the diaphragm,
the muscular "plate" between chest and abdomen. Liver, spleen, stomach, small
intestine and colon form a weight of several kilograms, hanging from the
diaphragm like from a thin thread. Other than in bikers, in runners the
impact of every step forces the inner organs to move downwards. Additionally,
the diaphragm moves upwards on every exspiration to force air out of the
lungs. This continuous up/down stress may cause a cramp in the diaphragm:
stitches. Stitches occur most often on the right hand side because of the
liver being the most heavy organ, and therefore the one stressing the
diaphragm the most.

Should you suffer from stitches, the first (and best) cure is to slow down or
stop until the stitches are gone. If you don+t want to stop, you can try to
press your hand onto the part of your abdomen where the stitches come from,
and release the pressure on exspiration. Repeat this several times.
The advanced method requires some thoughts about the reason why stitches
occur. You should try to synchronize your breathing pattern with your running,
and exhale when the foot on the not hurting side touches the ground, i.e. when
you have stitches in your right hand side, try to exhale when your left foot
touches the ground. You don+t need to worry about inspiration - if your
exspiration is right, your inspiration will be, too. If you manage to keep
this breathing pattern, your diaphragm moves downward at the same time as your
intestines, thus decreasing the stress. Nevertheless, you should apply this
breathing pattern only to cure stitches; normally, the exspiration phase takes
more time than the inspiration and shouldn+t be shortened artificially.

Strengthen your abdominal muscles to minimize the probability of stitches.
Bend forward when running downhill. Try to learn breathing with your
diaphragm, too, instead of only breathing with your chest. You can strengthen
your diaphragm by lying on your back, putting weight (e.g. several big books)
on your stomach and moving the weight up and down when breathing - up on
inspiration, down on exspiration.

To avoid stitches:
- strenghten your abdominal muscles
- keep your upper body warm
- don+t run too soon after meals
- learn "abdominal breathing"
- incease your speed during training runs only moderately
- avoid running donwhill too fast
- cut out you liver prior to the BIG race...(ok, I added this one....Thom)

When suffering from stitches:
- best: stop running
- apply pressure with your hand onto the hurting spot,
+and release the pressure on exspiration
- manage to exhale "on the correct foot"

Thom Trimble
East Bay Striders @ http://tornado.sfsu.edu

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In article <yCRZc.92224$9d6.20709@attbi_s54>, Brad Goodfellow

Quoted message said:

Everytime I run a race I get stitches or a sideache.
Can anyone tell me how to prevent getting sideaches during a race.

Thanks

Breathing-Stitches for beginner

(Diane Patterson) said:

I've noticed when I go out running that the biggest factor as to how fast
I can go is my breathing--I can't seem to breathe fast enough to keep up
with a quicker pace, so I end up going slower than my legs can handle. Any
suggestions for how to increase my oxygen intake?

Also, the past couple of mornings I've gotten a terrible stitch on my
right side. The only thing I have been going out is 2 glasses of water (16
oz.), but I've gotten the stitch even on days without the water. I've
tried altering my form (holding my stomach muscles tighter, standing up
straighter), but nothing seems to relieve this cramp. Help! Diane

<[email hidden]> wrote:

Hi Diane,

Was just reading some mythology first on Diana and her Greek
counterpart, Artemis, goddess of the hunt. A most vindictive person
should one get on her bad side. Artemis was the sister of Apollo and
spent a great deal of time with her Oceanids and other caretakers
hunting and roaming the rugged mountainous areas where they dwelled.
There was no mention of her getting side aches, only of bathing in the
rivers to assuage her fatigue.

While my post reply to Yoga & Running has a good deal about breathing
patterns, I believe that your issue is of reverse breathing. You see
it in a fighter/ boxer when he get hit in the stomach, as he breathes
in he reverses his breathing pattern. As he breathes in he sucks his
stomach in. And as he breathes out, the belly is distended. To give
you a picture of what I mean, place your right hand on your stomach
just below the rib cage. Now place the left hand's palms on top of the
right hand. Now your right hand is your diaphram and your left hand is
your abdominal muscles. As you breathe in, let your right hand be
pushed away as the belly inflates with the downward contraction of the
diaphram. At the same time let the left hand (representing the
abdominals) push the back of the right hand back toward the belly.

If you would continue to do that you'd cramp your right hand because it
can't go through it's expansion cycle. You may now get an idea of
what is causing your stitch.

When I coach people with this similar problem, I have them lay on their
backs, knees up and feet flat on the ground. I place a phone book on
their stomach, or a lighter paperback so that they get a feel of the
abdominals relaxing as the diaphram expands and pushes the book away
from the belly area. If no book is available I have them use their
hand so that they can feel the rise.

If I were to say softly, "Diane, stay relaxed and on the count of three
I want you to take a deep breath in. And I quietly say "One."
"Two," very softly and slowly to keep your relaxed (oh yes, I have a
high speed camera start on two) and on the count of three, I SCREAM
'THREE' AT THE TOP OF MY VOICE AND MAY A SUDDEN VIOLENT MOTION WITH MY
HANDS CLAPPING TOGETHER...and SCARE the bejezus out of you...when we
would play back the videotape, you would see that the scare reflex as
you inhaled not knowing you were going to have the hell scared out of
you, would show the tightening of your abdominal muscles...and you
would end up holding your breath, ticked off that I would do such an
unkind thing to you just to show you why you were getting stitches.
But you would find that you would get them very seldom and when you
did you would relax the abdominals or you would take the fingers of
your right hand and place them just under your right rib cage and with
the left hand push the blade of those fingers in and upward as your
breathed in and felt the diaphram expand and push against the fingers
which you didn't allow to give....and as you exhaled you'd allow the
fingers to ride in behind the relaxing diaphram....and you'd notice the
stitch subside...and you would say to yourself: Darn, that's really
cool.

When we attempt to run faster than what we are used to doing, the
scare reflex gets the abdominals working against the diaphram...and you
get your proverbial stitch. But again, this is just my folklore. If
it doesn't work for you, find someone who makes sense and whose
folklore works for you.

In health and on the run,
Ozzie Gontang
Director, San Diego Marathon Clinic, est. 1975
Maintainer - rec.running FAQ
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/running-faq/
Mindful Running:
http://www.mindfulness.com/mr.asp